15 May 2006
12 May 2006
how many local dollars for a local anaesthetic?
although i haven't had the time and/or energy to post for a while, my resolutions have not died and neither have my plants, not yet anyway although the greenflies decided to move on to the cos salad (they don't seem to like the lollo rosso though, so that's something to keep in mind when i plant my next batch of lettuce...). speaking of plants, we transferred more than half of them to sebastian's mom's (flat) garage roof because they get way more sun up there than on my balcony. it's still not really warm for this time of the year. anyway, on said roof there were still a few huge flower pots left from past gardening experiments and when we removed various weeds and roots what did we find? we dug up about twenty white grubs - it was not a pleasant sight i can assure you. even now that i have learned that they belong to the noble family of scarabaeidae or dung beetles it is hard to politely overlook the sheer ugliness of the unfinished product.
in other news, i made milchrahmstrudel which is a nice way to use stale (read brick hard) white bread. i had a baguette hanging around for a bit too long and decided to use it while it still hadn't decided to go out and discover the world or whatever it is that french breads do when they take on a life of their own.
milchrahmstrudel
- three cups of small pieces of stale white bread
- milk
- a handful of raisins
- a fourth of a cup of softened butter
- half a cup of sugar
- four egg yolks
- vanilla extract (or a vanilla bean for the snobs among us)
- zest of half a lemon
- one cup of sour cream
- four egg whites
- melted butter
- six sheets of phyllo dough
- two tablespoons of butter to melted in half a cup of hot milk
tear or crush the bread into small pieces (i had to use a rolling pin...) and add as much milk as they can absorb, put aside and add more milk later if necessary.
beat egg whites until stiff peaks or whatever forms.
cream together butter, sugar and egg yolks in a separate bowl, stir in lemon zest, vanilla and sour cream.
check if bread needs more milk (it should become very soft and mushy but there should be no excess liquid) and mash with a fork until more or less homogeneous. mix with raisins and then stir into sour cream mixture. at last fold in whipped egg whites.
prepare melted butter, a slightly dampened dish towel and one big ovenproof dish ideally there should be just enough space for three strudels but it's ok to use two smaller ones.
now you should work fast, because once unpacked the phyllo sheets dry out very quickly and literally break apart when touched. spread one phyllo sheet on the towel and brush with butter, it doesn't have to be totally covered everywhere but the butter keeps the dough elastic and easier to manage.
lay a second sheet on top of the first one and distribute a third of the filling on the half closer to you leaving a space of about two inches at the sides. fold the dough at the sides over the filling and gently lifting the towel roll up the strudel.
with the help of the towel transfer to pan. this is easiest done when the "seam" is on top. "roll" over the edge of the towel into the pan so that it flips over and the pretty side is on top.
repeat with remaining sheets (which can be covered with another wet towel until used to keep them from drying out to much.) brush strudels with butter and bake at 160°C for 30 minutes. they should be golden brown in color by now.
pour over milk with butter and put back into the oven for another 10 minutes. let set at roomtemperature until lukewarm.
milchrahmstrudel can be served warm with vanilla custard or cold sprinkled with powdered sugar.
05 May 2006
beauty and the beast (take the spell away)
my beautiful plants are infested with aphids. but i won't capitulate just like that, i shake my fist at you, whoever sent me this plague! (yes, i take this very personally because i have so many other things that need to be done at the moment. if there ever is a convenient moment for discovering that small sap-sucking insects are crawling over my plants it is quite definitely not now.) i am trying to get rid of them by spraying the leaves with neem tea. if anybody has had positive experiences with other home remedies, please go ahead and share your wisdom.
very little time means that nothing much exciting is happening in my kitchen (not having as many darlings and loves at hand as jamie oliver to get me the olive oil and those lemons...). however, yesterday i managed to find the time to make paradeissauce.
paradeissauce (homemade tomato sauce, traditional style)
- a little more than two pounds of tomatoes
- two tablespoons of flour and oil each
- water as needed
- one to two teaspoons of sugar (or to taste)
- salt
- optional: vegetable stock powder, tomato paste
cut tomatoes into quarters.
gently heat oil in a pot, stir in flour, then add tomatoes. the tomatoes should be cooked very slowly so that they can release their juice to form a sauce with the flour. if needed a few tablespoons of water can be added at the beginning to prevent burning.
when tomatoes are soft and mushy, run through something like that or mash through a sieve.
season with sugar and salt and vegetable stock powder if needed. the sauce should have a pretty mild taste, not too acidic. if the tomatoes are not perfectly ripe, adding a tablespoon of tomato paste might be necessary.
this sauce is either served over short egg pasta or used to cook stuffed bell peppers in it. my grandma used to toss some potatoes in a little butter and together with the tomato sauce they made a nice, light dinner.
btw, on my search for the vocabulary for the above (un)mentioned cooking utensil i found a few really strange articles on wikipedia in the "food utensils" category...
04 May 2006
i love you (but you're green)
after a rather adventurous trip to a plant and seed exchange event in schiltern (rudimentary description in english as pdf file) i am the proud (co-)owner of quite a number of plants that hopefully will survive the weather and me. oh yes, and i have some seeds to be sown in autumn for next year. we have (yes, i like writing lists...):
- three different tomato plants (one of them should develop tiny yellow fruit, the other two are especially good for making sauces)
- three kinds of basil (indian, greek and genovese)
- two kinds of mint (greek and spearmint)
- three chilli plants (from the capsicum pubescens and frutescens variety)
- two kinds of lettuce (lollo rosso and cos lettuce, yes, i can't believe it myself...)
- lemon verbena, borage, lady's mantle, lavender and one hokkaido squash
- and last but not least a cardamom plant. realistically it won't bloom or bear fruit and can only be put outdoors when it's really warm but it looked and sounded too intriguing not to be bought. i love cardamom and when i arrange the (store bought) pods around the flower pot with the plant in it, it almost feels like the real thing... er or something like that. anyway it's nice to know what the plant looks like that produces this divine spice.
oh yes, the strawberry plants on the balcony already have tiny green fruit! let's hope it keeps getting warmer during the next weeks.
02 May 2006
what should be done
so, it's may already and high time to post more about my "eat local"-project this month. it was inspired by this site but is not directly linked to it as i am not an author on the collaborative blog. don't ask me why, but my gut feeling was totally against it maybe i will drop jen an email within the next few days but i can't promise anything.
so, without further ado i will sum up the rules of my game for you, my valued readers:
- first and very obvious: consume as much of my daily energy intake from locally produced food as possible, focusing on organically grown produce.
- exceptions: spices, tea, olive oil, some italian cheeses (unfortunately i still haven't found a local source for mozzarella but we'll see), eating out (i am always pleased to see when restaurants prefer locally produced ingredients, but i am not about to give up eating out just because that's not the case everywhere).
- resolutions and ideas: i will bake my own bread and make pasta as often as possible, continue growing sprouts, grow as many vegetables and herbs on the balcony as possible without significantly raising my mother's blood pressure, try a few recipes from my grandma's cookbook and generally make as many half-forgotten traditional austrian dishes as i can stand or have the time and appetite to.
right now i don't have the patience to write a lot more (microbiology and physiology tests to come in two weeks...) but feel free to add anything that i left out but that seems important to you, i will probably include it into my list.